Garin-Mikhailovsky Nikolai Georgievich. Garin-Mikhailovsky writer and engineer

Kapitonova, Nadezhda Anatolyevna Through the pages of radio programs: N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky / N. A. Kapitonova // Historical readings. Issue 10. - 2007. - С.383-407

BY PAGES OF RADIO BROADCASTS

1. Garin-Mikhailovsky

The life of Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky is so rich in events, work, creativity that it is worth writing a novel about him. He can be called a unique person: he is a writer (his famous tetralogy "The Childhood of Themes", "High School Students", "Students" and "Engineers" became classics), and a talented travel engineer (it was not for nothing that he was called "The Knight of Railways") , journalist, fearless traveler, good family man and educator. Savva Mamontov said about him: "He was talented, talented in all directions." Garin-Mikhailovsky was not only a great worker, but also a great lover of life. Gorky called him "The Merry Righteous."

We are interested in him also because he built a railway in the South Urals. We can say that he connected Chelyabinsk with Europe and Asia, lived for several years with us in Ust-Katava, for some time lived in Chelyabinsk. He dedicated several stories and a story to the people of the Urals: "Leshey Swamp", "Tramp", "Grandmother".

In Chelyabinsk there is a street named after Garin-Mikhailovsky. Until recently, a memorial plaque with his name hung on the building of our station, which was opened in 1972. Now, unfortunately, she has disappeared. The Chelyabinsk residents simply must return the memorial plaque with the Garin-Mikhailovsky bas-relief!

The beginning of the life of Garin-Mikhailovsky

Nikolai Georgievich was born on February 20, 1852 in St. Petersburg, in the family of the famous general and hereditary nobleman Georgy Mikhailovsky. The general was so respected by the tsar that Nicholas I himself became the godfather of the boy, who was named after him. Soon the general retired and moved with his family to Odessa, where he had an estate. Nikolai was the eldest of nine children.

The house had its own rigid system of upbringing. The writer told about it in his famous book "The Childhood of Themes". When the boy grew up, he was sent to the famous in Odessa Richelieu gymnasium. After graduating from it, he entered the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University in 1871, but his studies did not work out, and the next year Nikolai Mikhailovsky brilliantly passed the exams at the Institute of Railway Engineers and never regretted it, although his work was incredibly difficult. He realized this in his student practice. There was a moment when he almost died. In Bessarabia, he worked as a fireman on a steam locomotive, he was very tired out of habit, and the driver took pity on the guy, he threw coal into the furnace for him, he was also tired, and both fell asleep on the road. The locomotive went uncontrollable. They were saved only by a miracle.

Nikolai Mikhailovsky's work on the railway

After graduation, he took part in the construction of a road in Bulgaria, then was sent to work at the Ministry of Railways. At the age of 27, he married the daughter of the Minsk governor, Nadezhda Valerievna Charykova, who became his wife, friend, and mother of his children for life. She outlived her husband a lot, wrote a good book about him. Mikhailovsky did not work in the ministry for long, he asked for the construction of the Batumi railway in the Transcaucasus, where he experienced a number of adventures (robbers - Turks attacked). You can read about this in his story "Two Moments". And there he could die. In the Caucasus, he was seriously faced with embezzlement, he could not put up with it. I decided to drastically change my life. The family already had two children. I bought an estate in the Samara province, 70 kilometers from the railway, near the impoverished village of Gundurovka.

"Several years in the country"

Nikolai Georgievich turned out to be a talented business executive and reformer. He wanted to turn the backward village into a prosperous peasant community. He built a mill, bought agricultural machinery, planted crops that the local peasants did not know before: sunflowers, lentils, poppy seeds. I tried to breed trout in the village pond. Unselfishly helped the peasants to build new huts. His wife set up a school for the village children. On New Year's Eve, Christmas trees were arranged for peasant children and presented with gifts. In the first year, they received excellent harvests. But the peasants took these good deeds of Mikhailovsky for the eccentricities of the master, deceived him. Neighboring landowners accepted the innovations with hostility and did everything to nullify the work of Mikhailovsky - they burned the mill, destroyed the harvest ... He held on for three years, almost went bankrupt, became disillusioned with his business: "So this is how my business ended!" Leaving the house behind them, the Mikhailovsky family left the village.

Later, already in Ust-Katava, Mikhailovsky wrote an essay "Several years in the village", where he analyzed his work on the ground, realized his mistakes: "I dragged them (the peasants) to some kind of my paradise ... an educated person, but I acted like an ignoramus ... I wanted to turn the river of life in a different direction. " This essay later came to the capital.

Ural period of Mikhailovsky's life

Mikhailovsky returned to engineering. He was assigned to the construction of the Ufa - Zlatoust road (1886). First, there was exploration work. For the first time in the history of the construction of railways in Russia, there were such difficulties: mountains, mountain rivers, swamps, impassable roads, heat and midges in summer, frosts in winter. Particularly difficult was the section Kropachevo - Zlatoust. Later, Mikhailovsky wrote: "8% of prospectors left the scene forever, mainly from nervous breakdown and suicide. This is a percentage of the war." When the construction work began, it was no easier: exhausting work, no equipment, everything was done by hand: a shovel, a pick, a wheelbarrow ... It was necessary to blow up rocks, make support walls, build bridges. The road was built at the expense of the state, and Nikolai Georgievich fought to reduce the cost of construction: "You can't build expensively, we don't have funds for such roads, but we need them like air, water ...".

He drew up a project for a cheaper construction, but his superiors were not interested in this. Nikolai Georgievich fought desperately for his project, sent a telegram of 250 words to the ministry! Suddenly, his project was approved and assigned to the chiefs of the site. Nikolai Georgievich described the history of this struggle in the story "Variant", where he is recognizable in the image of the engineer Koltsov. "Option" he wrote in Ust-Katava. I read it to my wife, but immediately broke it. The wife secretly collected the pieces, glued them together. They published it when Garin-Mikhailovsky was no longer alive. Chukovsky wrote about this story: "Not a single writer of fiction has ever been able to write so fascinatingly about work in Russia." In Chelyabinsk, this story was published in 1982.

But let's get back to the time of the construction of the railway. From a letter to his wife (1887): "... I am in the field all day from 5 am to 9 pm. I am tired, but cheerful, cheerful, thank God, healthy ...".

He did not deceive his wife, talking about gaiety and cheerfulness. He really was a very energetic, fast, charming person. Gorky later wrote about him that Nikolai Georgievich “accepted life as a holiday. Colleagues and friends called him "Divine Nika". They were very fond of the workers, they said: "We will do everything, father, just give orders!" From the memoirs of an employee: "... Nikolai Georgievich's sense of the terrain was amazing. Wading on horseback through the taiga, drowning in swamps, he seemed to unmistakably choose the most profitable directions from a bird's eye view. And he builds like a magician." And, as if he answers this in a letter to his wife: “They say about me that I do miracles, and they look at me with big eyes, but I find it funny. So little is needed to do all this. More conscientiousness, energy, enterprise, and these seemingly terrible mountains will part and reveal their secret, invisible to anyone, not marked on any maps, passages and passages, using which you can reduce the cost and significantly reduce the line. "

And you can cite many examples of "cheapening" of road construction: a very difficult section at the pass near Suleya station, a piece of road from Vyazovaya station to the Yakhino junction, where it was necessary to make deep excavations in the rocks, build a bridge across the Yuryuzan River, lead the river into a new channel, pour thousands of tons of soil along the river ... Anyone who passes the Zlatoust station never ceases to be amazed at the railway loop invented by Nikolai Georgievich.

He was in one person: a talented prospector, an equally talented designer and an outstanding railway builder.

In the winter of 1887, Nikolai Georgievich settled with his family in Ust-Katava. There is a small monument in the churchyard. The daughter of Nikolai Georgievich Varenka is buried here. She lived for only three months. But here the son of Gar (George) was born, who gave a new name to the writer. Unfortunately, the house where the Mikhailovskys lived has not survived in the city. On September 8, 1890, the first train arrived from Ufa to Zlatoust. There was a great celebration in the city, where Nikolai Georgievich made a speech. Then the government commission noted: "Ufa - Zlatoust road ... can be recognized as one of the outstanding roads built by Russian engineers. The quality of work ... can be recognized as exemplary." For his work on the construction of the road, Nikolai Georgievich was awarded the Order of St. Anna. It will not be superfluous to say that the well-known sign "Europe - Asia", installed at the highest point of the South Ural railway, was made according to the project of Garin-Mikhailovsky.

Mikhailovsky also visited Chelyabinsk in 1891-1892. At that time, the construction management of the road was located in a two-story building on Truda Street next to today's Geological Museum. The house was demolished in the 80s of the last century. Now there is a monument to Sergei Prokofiev at this place. It would be nice to move this monument to the Philharmonic (it was planned there!), And on this place to erect a monument to those who built the railway, including Garin-Mikhailovsky! The village where Garin-Mikhailovsky lived then is no longer on the map of Chelyabinsk.

Writer Garin-Mikhailovsky

In the winter of 1890-1891, Nadezhda Valerievna fell seriously ill. Mikhailovsky left work on the road, took his family to Gundurovka, where it was easier to live. The wife recovered. Nikolai Georgievich at his leisure began to write memories of his childhood ("The Childhood of Themes"). In early spring, in the very muddy road, an unexpected and rare guest came to them from St. Petersburg - the already famous writer Konstantin Mikhailovich Stanyukovich. It turns out that he got the manuscript of Nikolai Georgievich "Several years in the country", he was fascinated by it. And he came to such a distance and wilderness to get acquainted with the author, to offer to publish an article in the magazine "Russian Thought". We talked, Stanyukovich asked if there was anything else written. Mikhailovsky began to read his manuscript about childhood. Stanyukovich enthusiastically approved of her, offered to be her "godfather", but asked to come up with a pseudonym, tk. the editor-in-chief of Russkaya Mysl at that time was Mikhailovsky's namesake. It didn't take long to think, because the one-year-old Garya came into the room, looked at the stranger very unfriendly and apprehensively. Nikolai Georgievich took his son on his knees and began to calm him down: "Don't be afraid, I'm Garin's dad." Stanyukovich immediately seized on: "Here's a pseudonym - Garin!" And the first books were published under this name. Then a double surname appeared - Garin-Mikhailovsky.

In the summer of 1891, Mikhailovsky was appointed head of the survey party for the preparation of the construction of the West Siberian Mainline on the Chelyabinsk - Ob section. Again the search for the most successful and convenient options in road construction. It was he who insisted that a bridge across the Ob be built near the village of Krivoshchekovo. Nikolai Georgievich then wrote: "While here, due to the absence of railways, everything is asleep ... but someday a new life will shine brightly and strongly here, on the ruins of the old ...". He seemed to know that on the site of the small station the city of Novonikolaevsk would arise, which would later become the huge city of Novosibirsk. The large square near the Novosibirsk railway station is named after Garin-Mikhailovsky. On the square there is a monument to Garin-Mikhailovsky. For 6 years, the road stretched from Samara to Chelyabinsk (over a thousand kilometers), and then on and on. The first train arrived in Chelyabinsk in 1892. And this is largely due to Garin-Mikhailovsky.

While Nikolai Georgievich was engaged in the construction of the railway, literary fame came to him. In 1892, the journal Russkoye Bogatstvo published "The Childhood of Themes", and a little later, "Russian Thought" - "Several Years in the Countryside." About the last work Chekhov wrote: "Previously, there was nothing like this in literature of this kind and tone, and, perhaps, sincerity. The beginning is a little routine and the end is elevated, but the middle is sheer pleasure. So sure, there is more than enough." He is joined by Korney Chukovsky, who says that "Several Years in the Country" reads like a sensational novel, "in Garin, even conversations with the clerk about manure excite like love scenes."

Garin-Mikhailovsky moved to St. Petersburg, took up the publication of a magazine (1892). He mortgaged his estate, bought Russkoye Bogatstvo, and in the very first issue he put the stories of Stanyukovich, Korolenko, Mamin-Sibiryak, who became his friends.

Garin-Mikhailovsky works a lot, sleeps 4-5 hours a day, writes the continuation of "The Theme's Childhood", articles on road construction, theft in construction, fights for state support for construction, signs a "practical engineer" under them. The Minister of Railways knows whoever writes articles that are undesirable to him threatens to dismiss Mikhailovsky from the railway system. But, as an engineer, Garin-Mikhailovsky is already known. He does not remain without work. Designs the road Kazan - Sergievy Vody. Continues to fight against embezzlement on the railroad. Garin-Mikhailovsky was not a revolutionary, but he meets Gorky and helps the revolutionaries with money.

Working on the railway does not allow him to sit at his desk, he writes on the go, on the train, on scraps of paper, office books. Sometimes a story is written overnight. He was very worried, sending his work, baptized him. Then he was tormented that he had written wrong, and sent corrections by telegrams from different stations. As far as I know, he was the only Russian writer who wrote his works by telegraph "(S. Elpatievsky) Garin-Mikhailovsky is the author of not only the famous tetralogy, but also stories, short stories, plays, essays.

Garin-Mikhailovsky and children

It's time to tell about the main love of Nikolai Georgievich. These are kids. From a letter to his wife (1887): "You, my joy, and children, I love more than life, I remember you with joy and pleasure ...". He had 11 of his children and three foster children! Even in their youth, he and his bride made an oath. "We will never touch our children with a finger." Indeed, children were never punished in his family, one of his displeased glances was enough. He really wanted the children to be happy, in one of the stories he writes: "... after all, if there is no happiness at the time of childhood, when will it be?" Not so long ago on the Moscow radio they read the wonderful story of Garin-Mikhailovsky "Confession of a Father" about the feelings of a father who punished his little son and then lost him. It would be good if this transmission could be repeated.

Everywhere he was surrounded by children, other people's children called him Uncle Nick. He loved to give gifts to children, arrange holidays, especially Christmas trees. He composed fairy tales on the go, told them beautifully. His children's stories were published before the revolution. I talked with children seriously, on an equal footing. When Chekhov died, Nikolai Georgievich wrote to his 13-year-old adopted son: “The most sensitive and sympathetic person and, probably, the most suffering person in Russia has died: we probably cannot even understand now the full magnitude and significance of the loss that this dare brought ... what do you think about it? Write me ... ". His letters to adult children have survived. He saw little with children, did not impose his beliefs on them, but his influence on children was enormous. They all grew up worthy people: Sergei became a mining engineer, Georgy (Garia) studied abroad before the revolution, ended up in forced emigration, knew 14 languages, was a specialist in international law, translated his father's works into foreign languages. He returned to the USSR in 1946, but died soon after ...

Garin-Mikhailovsky dedicated his first and most expensive book to his childhood - "The Childhood of the Theme" (1892). This book is not only memories of his own childhood, but also reflections on the family, moral education of a person. He remembered the cruel father, the punishment cell in their house, the flogging. The mother defended the children, said to the father: "You should train the puppies, not raise the children." An excerpt from "The Childhood of the Theme" became the book "Theme and the Bug", one of the first and favorite books of children of many generations in our country.

Continuation of "Childhood Themes" - "Gymnasium Students" (1893). And this book is largely autobiographical, "everything is taken straight from life." Censorship protested against this book. Garin-Mikhailovsky writes that the gymnasium turns children into dullards, distorts souls. Someone called his story "An invaluable treatise on education ... how not to educate." The books then made a huge impression on readers, especially teachers. A stream of letters started pouring in. Garin-Mikhailovsky put the following words into the mouth of his hero from the "Gymnazists" (teacher Leonid Nikolaevich): earth, and the issue of education is the most acute and sick mankind. And this is not an old, meager issue - this is an eternally new issue, because there are no old children. "

The third book by Garin-Mikhailovsky "Students" (1895). And in this book his life experience, observations that human dignity was suppressed in the student body, the task of making an institution is not a man, but a slave, an opportunist. Only at the age of 25, when he began to build his first road, began to work, only then he found himself, acquired character. It turned out that all the first 25 years of his life was a yearning for work. An ebullient nature from childhood was waiting for a lively cause, but the family, the gymnasium, the institute killed this thirst. The fourth book is "Engineers". It has not been completed yet. And it came out after the death of the writer (1907). Gorky called these books by Garin-Mikhailovsky "a whole epic of Russian life."

Garin-Mikhailovsky - traveler

Work on the railroad, painful work on books. Nikolai Georgievich was very tired and decided to "rest" to travel around the world (1898) through the Far East, Japan, America, Europe. This was his old dream. He has traveled all over Russia for a long time now I wanted to see other countries. Garin-Mikhailovsky got ready for a trip, and just before his departure he was offered to take part in a large scientific expedition to North Korea and Manchuria. He agreed. It was a very difficult, dangerous, but extremely interesting journey through unknown places. The writer traveled 1600 kilometers on foot and on horseback with the expedition. I saw a lot, kept diaries, and listened to Korean fairy tales through a translator. Later he published these tales for the first time in Russia and Europe. We published these tales in 1956 and, unfortunately, did not reprint them again.

Garin-Mikhailovsky visited Japan, America, Europe. It is interesting to read his lines about his return to Russia after such a trip: “I don’t know how whom, but I was seized by a heavy, downright painful feeling when I entered Russia from Europe ... , it will not seem like a prison, horror, and even more melancholy from this consciousness. "

Garin-Mikhailovsky wrote interesting reports on his expedition to North Korea. After returning from a trip, he was invited to the Tsar at the Anichkov Palace. Nikolai Georgievich was preparing very seriously for a story about what he had seen and experienced, but it turned out that his story did not interest anyone from the royal family, the queen was clearly bored, and the king painted female heads. The questions were asked completely irrelevant. Then Nikolai Georgievich wrote about them "These are provincials!" But the tsar nevertheless decided to award Garin-Mikhailovsky the Order of St. Vladimir. The writer never received it, because he and Gorky signed a letter of protest against the beating of students at the Kazan Cathedral. Nikolai Georgievich was exiled from the capital for a year and a half.

Railway again

In the spring of 1903, Garin-Mikhailovsky was appointed head of the survey party for the construction of a railway along the southern coast of Crimea. Nikolai Georgievich investigated the possibility of laying the road. He understood that the road must pass through very picturesque places and resorts. Therefore, he developed 84 (!) Versions of the electric road, where each station had to be designed not only by architects, but also by artists. Each station had to be very beautiful, non-standard. He then wrote: "I would like to finish two things - the electric road in Crimea and the story" Engineers. " ...

The Crimean road has not yet been built! And Garin-Mikhailovsky went to the Far East as a war correspondent. He wrote essays, which later became the book "Diary during the War", which contained the real truth about that war. After the 1905 revolution, he came to St. Petersburg for a short time. He gave a large amount of money for revolutionary needs. He did not know that from 1896 until the end of his life he was under the secret police surveillance.

Garin-Mikhailovsky's departure

After the war, he returned to the capital, plunged headlong into public work, writing, writing articles, plays, trying to finish the book "Engineers" ... He did not know how to rest, slept 3-4 hours a day. His wife tried to persuade her to rest, and he answered her: "I will rest in the grave, I will sleep there." He probably had no idea how close he was to the truth in his prophecy. On November 26, 1906, Nikolai Georgievich gathered his friends, talked and argued all night (he wanted to create a new theater). Dispersed in the morning. And at 9 am - work again. In the evening, Garin-Mikhailovsky at a meeting of the editorial board of Vestnik Zhizn, again controversy, his bright, ardent speech. Suddenly he felt bad, he went into the next room, lay down on the sofa and died. After the autopsy, the doctor said that the heart was healthy, but from extreme fatigue, his paralysis occurred.

The family did not have enough money for the funeral, so they had to collect it by subscription. Buried Garin-Mikhailovsky at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Much has been written about Garin-Mikhailovsky, there are books, articles, memoirs. But, probably, the most accurate characteristics were given to him by Korney Chukovsky (essay "Garin"). One would like to cite the whole essay here, but it is great - 21 pages. Here are just a few lines from the sketch:

"Garin was short, very mobile, dapper, handsome: gray hair, young and quick eyes ... All his life he worked as a railway engineer, but also in his hair, in his impetuous, uneven gait and in his unbridled, hasty , ardent speeches always felt what is called broad in nature - an artist, a poet, alien to stingy, selfish and petty thoughts ...

The most important thing to me is that, for all his emotional impulses, for all his imprudent, unrestrained generosity, he was a business-like, business-like person, a man of figures and facts, accustomed from his youth to all economic practices.

This was the originality of his creative personality: in the combination of the high structure of the soul with practicality. A rare combination, especially in those days ... He is the only fiction writer of his day who was a consistent enemy of mismanagement, in which he saw the source of all our tragedies. In his books, he often insisted that Russia is completely in vain to live in such humiliating poverty, since it is the richest country in the world ...

And in the Russian countryside, and in the Russian industry, and in the Russian railway business, and in the Russian family way of life he peered just as efficiently and thoughtfully - he made a kind of revision of Russia in the eighties and nineties ... And, like any practitioner, he has goals always specific, clear, close, aimed at eliminating some specific evil: this needs to be changed, rebuilt, but this needs to be completely destroyed. And then (in this limited area) life will become smarter, richer and more joyful ... ".

It is a pity that during Garin-Mikhailovsky's lifetime his views on the reconstruction of Russia were not appreciated in the country.

The South Urals can be proud that such a person is directly related to him.

Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky (1852 - 1906)- Russian writer, essayist, engineer, traveler.

Nikolay was born on February 20, 1852 in a family with noble roots. Education in the biography of Garin-Mikhailovsky was received at the Richelieu gymnasium in Odessa. Then he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Railways. The next few years he spent in Bulgaria, then in the Samara province.

Later in the biography of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, it was decided to take part in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The group, led by Garin-Mikhailovsky, chose the path for laying a highway (namely, a railway bridge). It was decided to build near modern Novosibirsk, but the area near Tomsk was not approved.

The first works in the biography of Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky were published in 1892 (the story "The Childhood of the Tyoma", the story "Several Years in the Countryside"). The work "Tyoma's Childhood" was a great success, so the author later created a sequel - 3 more parts: "Gymnasium Students", "Students", "Engineers". In addition, Garin-Mikhailovsky published his engineering reflections on the construction of railways in newspapers. The writer presented his impressions of the time spent in the village in the works "Village panoramas", "Several years in the village", "Sketches of provincial life". Garin-Mikhailovsky's books and stories are imbued with sincere optimism.

The writer traveled extensively in the Far East, after which his descriptions appeared "Through Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula." Garin-Mikhailovsky died on December 10, 1906.

Biography from another source

Garin. N. (pseudonym; real name - Nikolay Georgievich Mikhailovsky) (8.02.1852-27.11.1906), writer. Born into an old noble family, once one of the richest and noblest in the Kherson province. He was baptized by Tsar Nicholas I and the mother of the revolutionary Vera Zasulich .. He studied at the Richelieu gymnasium in Odessa. The childhood and adolescence of Nikolai Georgievich, which coincided with the era of reforms in the 1860s. - a time of decisive breaking of the old foundations, took place in Odessa, where his father, Georgy Antonovich, had a small house and not far from the city - an estate. Initial education, according to the tradition of noble families, he received at home under the guidance of his mother, then, after a short stay in a German school, he studied at the Odessa Richelieu gymnasium (1863-1871). In 1871 N.G. Mikhailovsky entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, but without passing the exam in the encyclopedia of law, the next year he passed the exam at the Institute of Railways with brilliance. During his student practice, Mikhailovsky traveled as a fireman on a steam locomotive, built a road from Moldova to Bulgaria, and then he already understood that not only intelligence, physical strength, but also courage should be invested in work; that labor and creation in. his chosen profession are linked together and give a rich knowledge of life and are constantly encouraged to look for ways to transform it. Carried away by populism, in N. 80s Garin settled in the village, trying to prove the vitality of "communal life" in his estate in the Samara province. The results of this experience, which ended in failure, Garin described in his first essays "Several Years in the Country" (1892).

In 1891, Nikolai Georgievich led the fifth survey party on the Chelyabinsk - Ob section of the West Siberian Railway. The most difficult part was the approach to the Ob-Yenisei watershed. Many options were discussed. In a wild country with an unusually harsh climate, despite the hardships, colossal exertion of forces, Mikhailovsky's exploration party scrupulously plots (one after the other) options for crossing the Ob and chooses the best, shortest, most profitable: where the great river flows along a rocky bed between rocky banks near the village of Krivoshchekovo. Engineer Vikenty-Ignatiy Ivanovich Roetsky played an important role in choosing the location for the railway bridge. It was his detachment, which was part of the fifth prospecting party, who conducted detailed surveys in the area. Since the mid-90s, Nikolai Georgievich participated in the organization of the first legal Marxist newspaper "Samarsky Vestnik", the magazines "Beginning" and "Life", was a member of the editorial board of the Bolshevik "Bulletin of Life".

More than once he hid underground workers in his estate, kept illegal literature, in particular, Iskra. During the years of the first Russian revolution through A.M. Gorky transferred large sums to the party treasury.

In December 1905, while in Manchuria as a war correspondent, Nikolai Georgievich took part in distributing revolutionary propaganda publications to the army.

It is no coincidence that since 1896, the strictest covert supervision has been established over him, which from that time continued until his death.

Peace was abhorrent to the seething nature of Nikolai Georgievich. His element is movement. He traveled all over Russia, made a round-the-world trip and, according to contemporaries, wrote his works "on the field" - in the compartment of the carriage, in the cabin of the steamer, in the hotel room, in the bustle of the station. And death overtook him "on the move." Nikolai Georgievich died shortly after returning from the army, at the editorial meeting of the journal "Vestnik Zhizn". It happened on November 27, 1906. He, who had given a large sum for the needs of the revolution, had nothing to bury. We collected money by subscription from the St. Petersburg workers and the intelligentsia.

The tsarist regime did not favor bright nuggets like Garin-Mikhailovsky. He was twice fired from the system of the Ministry of Railways, hounded, and kept under police surveillance. During his lifetime, fame came to him as a writer N. Garin. And now he is also known as an outstanding creative engineer, a selfless Russian educator.

Garin appeared in literature as a realist. In the stories of the 90s ("On the Go", 1893, "Village Panoramas", 1894, etc.) he painted images of the technical intelligentsia and workers, pursuing the idea of ​​the need for a rational organization of life ("Variant", 1888, published in 1910; "On practice ", 1903, etc.). Garin's most significant work was a tetralogy, characterized by critics as a "whole epic" of Russian life: "Tema's Childhood" (1892), "Gymnasium Students" (1893), "Students" (1895), "Engineers" (published posthumously, 1907). It is dedicated to the destinies of the younger generation of the “critical time”. The author depicted the evolution of the protagonist - Tema Kartashev, who, under the influence of the national environment, renounces the nihilistic utopias of youth and turns into a respectable Russian person. Garin's numerous travels resulted in the travel essays “Across Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula” (1899), “Around the World” (1902), in which Garin spoke with great sympathy about the talents and hard work of the Chinese and Korean peoples, debunked the theory of “inferiority of the yellow race ". In 1898, while in Korea, he compiled a collection of Korean Fairy Tales (published in 1899). In n. In the 1900s he collaborated with the Znaniye publishing house, but did not take part in the troubles of 1905.

N.G. GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY (1852-1906)
Brief curriculum vitae

• Collected Works. In 5 volumes - M .: Goslitizdat, 1957-1958.
• Vol. 1. Childhood Themes; High school students / will join. article by V.A. Borisova, 1957. - 522 p., portr.
• T.2. Students; Engineers, 1957 .-- 563 p.
• T.3. Essays and stories, 1888-1895, 1957 .-- 655 p.
• T.4. Essays and stories, 1895-1906, 1958 .-- 723 p.
• T.5. Korea, Manchuria and Liaodong Peninsula; Around the world; Korean fairy tales; Fairy tales for children; Plays; Memoirs, Articles, 1894-1906, 1958 .-- 719 p.
• Selected works / Enter. article by A. Volkov. - M .: Goslitizdat, 1950 .-- 300 p., Portr.
• Childhood Themes; High school students: Stories. - M .: Pravda, 1981 .-- 447 p., Ill.
• Students; Engineers: Stories. - M .: Pravda, 1981 .-- 528 p., Ill.
• Childhood Themes; High school students. - M .: Art. lit., 1974 .-- 384 p.
• Students; Engineers: Stories. - M .: Art. lit., 1977 .-- 389 p.
• Novel / Introduce. article by Y. Postnov. - Novosibirsk: Zap.-Sib. book publishing house, 1976. - 648 p., ill. Contents.: Childhood Themes; High school students; Students.
• Childhood Themes; High school students. - M .: Art. lit., 1972 .-- 440 p.
• Childhood Topics: From family chronicles / Preface. K. Chukovsky. - M .: Sov. Russia, 1977 .-- 239 p., Ill.
• Stories and essays / Enter. article by K. Chukovsky. - M .: Art. lit., 1975 .-- 836 p.
• Stories and stories / Poslesl. O.M. Rumyantseva. - M .: Mosk. worker, 1955. - 552 p., ill. - (B-ka youth).
• From the diaries of the trip around the world: Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula / Will enter. article and comment. V.T.Zaichikova. - M .: Geografgiz, 1952 .-- 447 p., Illustrations, maps.
• From the explanatory note of the head of the 5th survey party, engineer N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, addressed to the chairman of the commission for West Siberian surveys. - In the book: Goryushkin L.M., Bochanova G.A., Tseplyaev L.N. Novosibirsk in the historical past. Novosibirsk, 1978, pp. 243-247.

• Letters from N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky to the wife of N.V. Mikhailovskaya: 1887-1897. / Publ., Foreword. and note. I. Yudina. - Sib. lights, 1979, N 8, p. 172-184.
• Letters of one year: From the letters of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky to N.V. Mikhailovskaya (1892) / Preface. and publ. I. Yudina. - Sib. lights, 1966, N 12, pp. 142-162.
• Letters to his wife and son from the Far East (1904-1906) / Preface, publ. and note. I. Yudina. - Sib. lights, 1970, N 12, p. 152-163.

BASIC LITERATURE ON LIFE AND CREATIVITY
N.G. GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY

• Miron about in G. M. Poet of impatient creation: N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. Life. Creation. Societies. activity. - M .: Nauka, 1965 .-- 159 p., Ill.
• Yudin and I. M. N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky: Life and Literature Societies. activity. - L .: Science, Leningrad. department, 1969. - 238 p., ill. - Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Institute of Rus. lit. (Cannon house).
• Tynyanova L. N. Indomitable Garin: A Story. - M .: Det. lit., 1974 .-- 143 p., ill. Journal. option: Sib. lights, 1972, N 1, p. 84-195. - (Under the title "Wide World").
• Galashin A.A. Garin-Mikhailovsky in the Samara province. - Kuibyshev: Book. publishing house, 1979. - 120 p., ill.
• Miron about in G.M. Garin N .: Krat. lit. encyclopedia. T.2. - M., 1964, p. 66-68, portr.
• Garin N. - In the book: Russian writers: Biobibliogr. dictionary. - M., 1971, p. 231-233.
• Zenzinov N.A., Ryzhak S.A. I envy the people of the future. - In the book: Zenzinov N.A., Ryzhak S.A. Outstanding engineers and scientists of railway transport. M., 1978, p. 120-132, portr.
• Also. - Science and Life, 1978, N 10, pp. 105-109.
• Lesinsky M.L.Doroga: About the design of the Crimea. electr. railway - In the book: Lezinsky M.L. Participants personally. Simferopol, 1980, pp. 114-119.
• People B. D. Garin. - In the book: Chelyshev B.D. Russian writers in Moldova. Chisinau, 1981, p. 92-103, ill.

• Mossesov A. Writer-Democrat. - Preschool. education, 1982, N 4, p. 42-45.
• N and kol'skiy N. Thirst for harmony: To the 75th anniversary of the death of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Family and school, 1981, N 12, pp. 44-45, portr.
• Question V. I envy the people of the future: N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky in Bulgaria and Moldova. - Codry, 1980, N 7, pp. 141-146, portr.
• N aum about in I. Audience. - Sat down. youth, 1977, N 3, pp. 60-61, ill. - (Club of Fatherland Classics).
• Ovansyan N. Writer, engineer, traveler. - In the world of books, 1977, N 2, p. 71.
• Example B. Brave dreamer: To the 125th anniversary of the birth of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Ogonyok, 1977, N 9, p. 18-19, portr.
• Rybakov V. Results of a prosperous childhood: On the autobiogr. tetralogy. - Family and school, 1977, N 3, p. 47-50, portr.
• Dzhapak about in A. Key from the cherished door: To biogr. N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Ural, 1976, N 10, p. 182-187, ill.

MEMORIES ABOUT N.G. GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY

• N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky in the memoirs of contemporaries / Comp., Ed. foreword and note. I.M. Yudin. - Novosibirsk: Zap.-Sib. book publishing house, 1967 .-- 175 p., portr. The book includes the memoirs of K. Chukovsky, N. V. Mikhailovskaya, P. P. Rumyantsev, E. N. Boratynskaya, A. V. Voskresensky, B. K. Terletsky, M. Gorky, F. F. Ventzel, S. Wanderer, S.Ya. Elpatievsky, A.I. Kuprin, V.V. Veresaeva, A.Ya. Brushtein.
• Gorky M. About Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Paulie. collection cit., v. 20. M., 1974, p. 75-90.
• Kuprin A. In memory of N.G. Mikhailovsky (Garin). - Collected. cit., vol. 9, M., 1973, p. 43-47.
• Chukovsky K. Garin. - Collected. cit., v. 5. M., 1967, p. 700-721, portr.
• Safonov V. Memories of Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Zvezda, 1979, No. 6, p. 179-187.

N.G. GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY AND NOVOSIBIRSK

• Sheremete in N. I envy the people of the future. - In the book: Our fellow countrymen. Novosibirsk, 1972, p. 13-30, portr.
• Goriushkin LMNG Garin-Mikhailovsky and his "version on Krivoshchekovo". - In the book: Goryushkin L.M., Bochanova G.A., Tseplyaev L.N. Novosibirsk in the historical past. Novosibirsk, 1978, pp. 28-32.
• Balandin SN Novosibirsk: History of urban planning. 1893-1945 - Novosibirsk: Zap.-Sib. book publishing house, 1978 .-- 136 p. silt On pages 4-7, 12 about N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• And other cities had to make room: Pages of the history of Novosibirsk. - In the book: The streets will tell you ... Novosibirsk, 1973, p.5-28, ill. On pages 5-10 about N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.

• 3 ykov N. From the cohort of fighters. - Sov. Siberia, 1983, Jan 19. - (Glorious names).
• Z or rk and y M. ... And here the city was founded. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1977, 17 Feb.
• KURCHENKO V. Everyone must prove love. - Youth of Siberia, 1977, Feb 19, portr.
• L and r about in I. The writer of our city. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1977, 18 Feb., Portr.
• The memory of him is alive ... - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1977, Feb 19. Four articles dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the birth of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• KN Garin-Mikhailovsky is the founder of Novonikolaevsk. - Sib. lights, 1962, N 7, p. 161-163. - Lit. in subscript. note.
• N echa e in K. Writer, engineer, dreamer. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1959, July 8. - (Know the history of your hometown).
• Petrov I. Beginning of the great construction: From the history of the building of the Transsib. railway - Land of Sib., Far East., 1981, N 4, p. 64. - 3 p. region Including about N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• Pikulev D. The first bridge across the Ob. - Sov. Siberia, 1968, May 18.
• And with t about m and I. About what the relic told: About ed. photographs of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky kept in Novosib. region ethnographer. museum. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1983, 17 Feb., Portr.
• In a x rushe in S. Old secretary: Thing of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky in the region. ethnographer. museum. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1963, 6 Sept.
• Fundraising for a monument has begun (to N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky in Novosibirsk). - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1983, Feb 19.
• ALEXANDROVA I. ... And the city remained. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1983, March 1.
• Fedorov V. Quarters rise over the Ob. - Sov. Siberia, 1983, March 10.

  Two articles about the evening at the Palace of Culture. M.M. Gorky, dedicated to the memory of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.

• "NG Garin-Mikhailovsky": Results of the competition [Conducted by ed. gas. "Evening. Novosibirsk" and Novosib. org. voluntarily Islands of Book Lovers]. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1983, Feb 25.

• N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky Square. - In the book: The streets will tell you ... Novosibirsk, 1973, p. 69-71, ill.
• K and k about in A. Named Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Sov. Siberia, 1983, April 17, ill. - (The squares of our city).

“All on the move, on the fly was this well-built man, of medium height, with thick white hair ... Simple to handle, able to talk to everyone - from a peasant to a society lady, inclusive. An interesting storyteller, graceful in his engineering jacket, he made a charming impression on most of those who met him. " So the Samara theater and literary observer Alexander Smirnov (Treplev) wrote about Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky (Fig. 1).

Track engineer

He was born on 8 (20, new style) February 1852 in St. Petersburg into a middle-class noble family. His father was an Uhlan officer Georgy Mikhailovsky, who distinguished himself during the Hungarian campaign in July 1849. During the battle at Germanstadt, his squadron, with a bold flanking blow, completely defeated the enemy, twice as superior, capturing two cannons. As a result of the military campaign, Mikhailovsky was granted an estate in the Kherson province by the highest decree, in which he, however, almost did not live, but settled in the capital, where he soon married Glafira Tsvetinovich, a noblewoman of Serbian origin. From this marriage, they had a son, who was named Nikolai.

In 1871, after graduating from the gymnasium, the young man entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, but he studied here for only one year. Having told his father that it was better to be a good artisan than a bad lawyer, Nikolai dropped out of the university and entered the Institute of Railways. Here he first tried to write, but a story from a student's life, presented to the editorial office of one of the capital's magazines, was rejected without any explanation. This failure for many years discouraged the young author from the desire for literary creativity.

The last year of Mikhailovsky's studies at the Institute of Railways coincided with the Russian-Turkish war. He received his diploma as a railway engineer in the summer of 1878, when the war was already over. Having barely received the cherished crusts, the young specialist was sent to Bulgaria, already freed from the Turks, as a senior technician, where he participated in the restoration of the seaport and the construction of new highways. In 1879 Mikhailovsky received the first of his orders for the excellent execution of orders in the last war.

The experience and professional recognition gained in the Balkans allowed the young engineer to get a job in the railway department (Fig. 2).

Track engineer

Over the next years, he participated in the laying of new steel lines in Bessarabia, Odessa province and the Transcaucasus, where he rose to the position of the head of the distance of the Baku section of the railway. However, at the end of 1883, Mikhailovsky, unexpectedly for his colleagues, submitted a letter of resignation from the railway service. As the engineer himself explained, he did this "for a complete inability to sit between two chairs: on the one hand, to look after the interests of the state, on the other, personal, economic."

Samara landowner

From this time began the Samara period of the life of a 30-year-old engineer. As can be seen from his later notes, in the early 1980s Mikhailovsky was carried away by the ideas of Narodnaya Volya, which was actively operating at that time. This organization included many Russian intellectuals, attracted here by the tasks of "educating the common people" and "raising the role of the peasant community in the transformation of Russia." Now we understand that it was precisely such a "revolutionary" hobby that became the real reason for Mikhailovsky's departure from engineering.

Being a practical man, the retiree decided to educate the peasants with concrete deeds. In 1883, for 75 thousand rubles, he bought the Yumatovka estate in the Buguruslansky district of the Samara province (now the village of Gundorovka, Sergievsky district). Here Nikolai Georgievich settled with his wife and two small children in a landlord's estate.

The Mikhailovsky spouses hoped to raise the well-being of local peasants, for which to teach them how to work the land competently and raise the general level of their culture. In addition, under the influence of populist ideas, Mikhailovsky wanted to change the entire system of rural relations, namely, to introduce electiveness in communal management and attract into the social sphere the capital of the rich villagers, whom the classics of Marxism-Leninism later called kulaks. The populist engineer believed that he would be able to persuade the rich to give part of their money to build a school, hospital, roads, and so on. And for ordinary farmers, the new owner of the estate organized courses to study the German experience in the cultivation and fertilization of land, which, in his opinion, would allow the peasants to soon get on the Trans-Volga chernozems unprecedented for our province harvests of "thirty", although local farmers in At that time, at best, they received "five-one".

Nadezhda Mikhailovskaya also participated in her husband's endeavors, who, being a physician by training, treated local peasants for free, and then set up a school for their children, where she herself studied with all the boys and girls of the village.

But all the innovations of the "good landowner" eventually ended in complete failure. Ordinary peasants greeted all his undertakings with distrust and murmur, categorically refusing to plow and sow "in German". Although some families nevertheless listened to the advice of the strange master and followed his instructions, in general Mikhailovsky, even in more than two years, did not manage to overcome the resistance of the inert peasant masses. As for the local kulaks, as soon as they heard about his intention to take away part of their capital "in favor of society," they entered into an open conflict with the new landowner, staging a series of night arson attacks in Yumatovka. In just one summer, Mikhailovsky lost his mill and thresher, and in September, when all of his granaries burst into flames, he also lost the entire harvest harvested with such difficulty. Almost ruined, the "good gentleman" decided to leave the village that had rejected him and return to engineering work. Having hired a skilled manager on the estate, Mikhailovsky in May 1886 entered the service on the Samara-Zlatoust railway. Here he was entrusted with the construction of a section in the Ufa province, from where the great Trans-Siberian Railway subsequently began.

And in his free time from laying railways, Mikhailovsky wrote a documentary story "Several years in the village", where he outlined the history of his unsuccessful socio-economic experiment in the village of Yumatovka. In the fall of 1890, the engineer, while in Moscow, showed this manuscript to Konstantin Stanyukovich, the author of nautical stories and novels, who at that time had great connections in literary circles. The venerable writer, having read several chapters, was delighted and told Mikhailovsky that he saw in his face a rising literary talent. However, the young author was suspicious of his words, since he considered his work still raw, requiring thorough refinement.

Mikhailovsky continued to work on the manuscript in those months while the construction of a section of the Ufa-Zlatoust railway was underway (Fig. 3).

Track engineer

At the same time, he wrote the autobiographical story "The Childhood of the Theme", which in many ways became his ticket to great literature. Both of these books with a short break were published in 1892 and received high critical acclaim.

So that he would not be reproached for inattention to his main work, the travel engineer put a pseudonym on the covers of his books - Nikolai Garin, which, according to the author, occurred on behalf of his son George, who was simply called Garia in the family. Subsequently, this is how he signed most of his other works, and a few years later he officially took for himself a double surname - Garin-Mikhailovsky.

A continuation of "The Childhood of the Theme" was his novels "Gymnasium Students" (1893), "Students" (1895) and "Engineers" (1907), which were combined into an autobiographical tetralogy. Works from this cycle are still considered the most famous part of Garin-Mikhailovsky's work, and many critics believe that "The Childhood of the Theme" is the best part of the whole tetralogy.

Childhood story

Contemporaries recalled that he was critical and even distrustful of himself as a writer. The already mentioned above Konstantin Stanyukovich praised this story very much after the release of "The Childhood of the Theme". He noted that the author has a living sense of nature, there is a memory of the heart, with the help of which he reproduces child psychology not from the outside, like an adult observing a child, but with all the freshness and completeness of childhood impressions. “It's nothing,” Garin-Mikhailovsky replied, sighing heavily. "Everybody writes well about children, it is difficult to write badly about them."

Since the beginning of the 90s, Nikolai Georgievich, without interrupting the construction of railways, actively participated in the organization and work of various periodicals in Samara and in the capital. In particular, he wrote articles and stories in "Samarsky Vestnik" and "Samarskaya Gazeta", in the magazines "Beginning" and "Life", and in 1891 Garin bought the right to publish the magazine "Russian wealth", and until 1899 was his editor.

Cooperating with Samara newspapers since 1895, he became closely acquainted with a number of local journalists, including Alexei Peshkov, who signed his articles and notes with the pseudonyms “Maxim Gorky” and “Yehudil Khlamida”. This is how Gorky later recalled this restless railway engineer: “When Samarskaya Gazeta asked him to write a story about the mathematician Lieberman, after much admonition he would write it in a carriage, on his way somewhere to the Urals. The beginning of the story, written on telegraph forms, was brought to the editorial office by a cabman from the Samara railway station. At night, a long telegram was received with amendments to the beginning, and a day or two later another telegram: "Sent - do not print, I will give another version." But he did not send another version, and the end of the story, it seems, came from Yekaterinburg ... It's amazing that, with his restlessness, he could write such things as "The Childhood of Themes", "Gymnasiums", "Students", "Clotilde", " Granny"…"

In addition to the Samara-Zlatoust railway, in the 90s Garin-Mikhailovsky also supervised the sections for laying steel lines in Siberia, the Far East and the Crimea. In 1896, he returned to Samara again to lead the construction of a railway line from the Krotovka station to Sergievsk Mineral Waters, which at that time had already gained all-Russian popularity as a resort. Here Garin-Mikhailovsky resolutely removed from the case dishonest contractors who had already managed to make considerable profits by stealing state funds and underpaying workers. The newspaper “Volzhsky Vestnik” wrote about this as follows: “N.G. Mikhailovsky was the first of the civil engineers to vote against the hitherto practiced order, and he was the first to attempt to introduce new ones. "

At the same construction site, Nikolai Georgievich, who did not abandon his populist attempts to "educate ordinary people", organized the first comradely court in Russia with the participation of workers and employees. Under his supervision, the "people's judges" were examining the case of one of the engineers, who took rotten sleepers from a dishonest supplier for a bribe. The court ruled to dismiss the bribe-taker and recover the cost of the low-quality goods from him. The management of the construction company, having learned about this initiative of Garin-Mikhailovsky, supported the "verdict", but from now on recommended not resorting to "people's justice" any more.

There is also a legend that at one of the sections of this construction, the designers took a long time to decide which side to go around the high hill, since the cost of each meter of the railway was very high. Garin-Mikhailovsky walked around the hill all day, and then ordered to lay a road along its right foot. When asked what caused this choice, the engineer replied that he watched the birds all day, from which side they flew around the hill. Of course, he said, birds fly a shorter route, saving their efforts. Already in our time, accurate calculations based on space imagery showed that Garin-Mikhailovsky's decision on bird watching was the most correct.

Restless nature

In his journalistic essays, Garin-Mikhailovsky remained faithful to the populist ideas of his youth. He sincerely dreamed of a time when Russia would be covered with a network of railways, and did not see greater happiness than "working for the glory of his country, bringing it not imaginary, but real benefit." He considered the construction of railways as a necessary condition for the development of the economy, the prosperity and power of his country. Given the lack of funds allocated by the treasury, he persistently advocated the reduction of the cost of building roads through the development of profitable options and the introduction of more advanced construction methods.

True, Mikhailovsky's views on the peasant community have undergone serious changes over time, and at the beginning of the twentieth century he wrote about it as follows: “It should be recognized that the peasants have the same right to choose any type of labor, which is also used by the writer of these lines. This is only the key to success, the key to progress. Everything else is stagnation, where there is no room for a living soul, where the mud and the bitter drunkenness of the same slave, with the only difference that the chain is no longer chained to the master, but to the ground. But she is chained by the same gentleman in the name of beautiful sounds, beckoning an idealist-gentleman who does not know and does not want to know at all, and therefore cannot comprehend the full extent of the resulting evil. "

Acquaintance and communication with Gorky, who was fond of Marxism and was personally acquainted with the major figures of the RSDLP, contributed to the radicalization of Mikhailovsky's political views. During the 1905 revolution, he repeatedly hid underground workers in his estate, kept illegal literature here, in particular Lenin's Iskra. In December 1905, while in Manchuria, Nikolai Georgievich brought here for distribution a party of revolutionary propaganda publications, and then transferred part of his funds to buy weapons to participants in the battles on Krasnaya Presnya in Moscow.

The result of his trips to the Far East was the travel essays "Through Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula" and the collection "Korean Tales". Gorky recalled this: “I saw the drafts of his books about Manchuria ... It was a heap of various pieces of paper, railway forms, lined pages torn from an office book, a concert poster and even two Chinese business cards; all this is covered with half-words, hints of letters. "How do you read this?" “Bah! - he said. "It's very simple, because I wrote it." And briskly began to read one of Korea's cute fairy tales. But it seemed to me that he reads not from the manuscript, but from memory. "

In general, literary creativity brought Garin-Mikhailovsky wide fame during his lifetime. The best of his works survived the author. The first time a collection of works by Garin-Mikhailovsky in eight volumes was published in 1906-1910.

By all accounts, Nikolai Georgievich's seething nature simply hated peace. He traveled all over Russia, and wrote his works "on the field" - in the compartment of the carriage, in the cabin of the steamer, in the hotel room, in the bustle of the station. And death overtook him, in the words of Gorky, "on the move." Garin-Mikhailovsky died of cardiac paralysis during an editorial meeting of the St. Petersburg journal Vestnik Zhizn, in whose affairs he took an active part. The writer made a passionate speech, and here he felt bad. He went into the next room, lay down on the sofa - and died here. It happened on November 27 (December 10), 1906 in St. Petersburg. Nikolai Georgievich was only 55 years old.

The writer and engineer Garin-Mikhailovsky was buried at Literatorskie Mostki of the Volkovskoye cemetery, and in 1912 a tombstone with a bronze high relief by the sculptor Lev Sherwood was installed on his grave (Fig. 4).

Indomitable is probably the best definition of the character of an engineer and a writer. Garin-Mikhailovsky always gave all his best, referring to what he was doing.

Childhood

He was born in 1852 into a wealthy noble family. Father - Georgy Antonovich Mikhailovsky in the war during the attack was wounded and awarded for bravery. After retiring, he settled in Odessa. His first-born Nika had a godfather. Mother Glafira Nikolaevna was a noblewoman of Serbian origin. The boy grew up handsome, cheerful, but very lively and nimble on the mountain.

Every now and then he violated the instructions of his father, whom he loved very much, and therefore the father in the heat of the moment took up the belt. The future writer Garin-Mikhailovsky studied at the Richelieu gymnasium. All this will be described later in two parts of the tetralogy: "The Childhood of Tyoma" and "Gymnasium Students". In them, almost every character has a real prototype. Only at the age of forty did he finish Garin-Mikhailovsky's first biographical story "The Childhood of Tyoma". He wrote his works in passing, one might say “on his knees” wherever he could. But when you read it, you don't notice it.

Youth

After graduating from the gymnasium, Garin-Mikhailovsky decided to become a lawyer and entered the university. But a year later, the dictates of his soul bring him to the Institute of Railways. It was a colossal success both for himself and for society. Later Garin-Mikhailovsky became a talented practical engineer.

In the meantime, in Bessarabia he works as a trainee fireman. But when he finishes his studies, he receives a referral to Bulgaria, and then participates in the construction of the Bendero-Galician road. Nikolai Georgievich was fascinated by the work of a surveyor engineer. In addition, decent earnings have appeared. In the same 1879, he very happily marries Nadezhda Valerievna Charykova (they had eleven children and three adopted ones). The wedding is taking place in Odessa, and the evening train is to take the young couple to St. Petersburg. But the cheerful and noisy Mikhailovsky family sets the clock in advance, and the young ones are late for the train and leave only in the morning. And how many jokes and laughter there were about this! In St. Petersburg, the paperwork in the ministry did not like Mikhailovsky. Therefore, he is happy to return to practical work. Builds a section of the Batum-Samtredia railway. The work is very dangerous - gangs of robbers hide in the forests and attack the workers. Then he was transferred and appointed head of the Baku section of the Transcaucasian Railway. At the end of 1882, seeing corruption, bribes, he resigns, although he is very fond of the activities of a survey engineer.

Gundurovka (1883-1886)

NG Garin-Mikhailovsky buys an estate in the Samara province, where he is going to create a farm that will help to raise crops, wants to destroy the kulaks.

The ideas of the populists had already penetrated into his consciousness. But three times they let the "red rooster" into his estate. The mill, the thresher and finally the entire crop were destroyed. He was practically broke and decided to return to the activity of an engineer. He lived in Gundurovka for two and a half years.

Engineering work

In 1886 he returned to his beloved work. Conducted surveys at the Ural section "Ufa-Zlatoust". The family at this time lives in Ufa. This was the beginning. He worked as an economist, and the result was huge savings - 60% of the money for every mile. But this project had to be pushed through with a fight. At the same time, he continues his literary work, writes the essay "Variant" about this story. Mikhailovsky introduced Stanyukovich to the first chapters of the story "The Childhood of Tyoma", which was published in its finished form in 1892. In addition, documentary sketches about the village were printed, which were also successful. In 1893, the essay "Journey to the Moon" was published. But in his heart and in practice, he remained a railway engineer.

Practical work

She tore off all the time. But it was a favorite thing. Mikhailovsky traveled all over Siberia, Samara province, visited Korea and Manchuria to find out the possibility of construction there as well. The impressions were included in the essay "Around Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula." He visited China, Japan and finally arrived in San Francisco via Hawaii.

Drove the train through all the states and returned to London, stopping on the way to Paris. In 1902, the essay "Around the World" was published.

A famous person

He became a very famous person in the capital, both as a traveler and as a writer. And as a result, he was invited to see Nicholas II. He walked with timidity, but returned with bewilderment. The questions asked by the emperor were simple and uncomplicated and spoke of the limited thinking of the questioner.

Literary life

He has been very active with a number of magazines. "The Childhood of the Theme", and "Gymnasium Students" and "Students" have already been published. Work is underway on "Engineers". At the evening meeting of the Herald of Life, he suddenly died. Such a load, which he carried, could not withstand the heart. He was 54 years old.

On a gloomy November morning, Petersburg saw off Garin-Mikhailovsky on his last journey to the Volkovo cemetery. There was not enough money for the funeral. I had to collect by subscription.

The book of life

The biography of the writer Garin began with "Tyoma's Childhood". He took this pseudonym by the name of his son Harry. But everyone is used to calling the author Garin-Mikhailovsky. The summary is a bright and clear source of childhood memories. A huge manor house on the outskirts of a large southern city and an adjoining "hired yard", which was rented out to a small house, where Tyoma's childhood passes in the dirt and dust, in the games and pranks of the beggar children of the yard children - nothing more than his father's house , where Nikolai Mikhailovich spent his childhood.

Tyoma Kartashev's childhood is happy, but by no means cloudless. The father, with his misunderstanding, severely wounds the tender child's soul. This suffering of the little Tyoma, the fear of the harsh and strict father echoes in the soul of the reader with pain. And Tyoma's sensitive and noble soul loves her impetuous and impressionable son without memory and, as best she can, defends him from the methods of his father's upbringing - a merciless flogging. The reader becomes a witness of the merciless brutal execution and horror that fills the mother's soul. The child turns into a pitiful beast. Human dignity has been torn from him. The successes and failures of pedagogical experience are relevant in our time, as shown by Garin-Mikhailovsky ("The Childhood of the Tyoma"). The summary is the spirit of humanity, respect for the personality of the child - the basics of democratic pedagogy. His father's dramatic death ends and his last words will be remembered forever: "If you ever go against the king, I will curse you from the grave."